In the heart of downtown Detroit, the beautiful former church-turned-concert venue Saint Andrew’s Hall was rocked to its core. Fans lined the sidewalk and around the block for the sold out stop of Falling In Reverse’s Episode III Tour.

Kicking off the night were New Years Day, led by Ash Costello. With a new line up (including former Static X guitarist, Frankie Sil), and a new album, “Unbreakable,” New Years Day brought a heavier sound than previously heard with their last release “Malevolence.” Between songs, Costello riffed with the crowd, promoting a new era of women rockers and blasting through a cover of Pantera’s 'Fucking Hostile,' Kehlani’s 'Gangsta,' their latest single 'Shut Up.' This tour leads into their first ever headlining tour, as they will spend a month on the road this summer promoting “Unbreakable.”

Next on the card were Pennsylvanians From Ashes to New. A refreshing throwback to the days of rap-rock/nu-metal, singers Danny Case and Matt Brandyberry brought a POD/Linkin Park-esque, tag-teaming delivery of their hits “Crazy” and “Through It All.” At one point, Case brought the noise front and center into the audience, giving those lucky few an unforgettable performance.

Rounding out the supporting acts were Massachusetts natives Ice Nine Kills. Theatrically the most impressive band of the night, each member paid homage to various horror movies (IT, Saw, Nightmare on Elm Street, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Crow, appropriately picked for its Detroit setting). The slasher tributes didn’t end there as they unleashed a myriad of their songs, featuring 'Stabbing in the Dark,' 'A Grave Mistake,' and finished their terrifying set with 'IT is the End.'

With the deafening “Ronnie” chants from the crowd, headliners Falling In Reverse made their way to the stage. Despite being visibly under the weather, Ronnie Radke powered through his ailments to treat the crowd with over an hour of bangers, including 'Drugs,' 'Game Over,' 'Bad Girls Club,' then finishing out the set with a 5 song encore while being propped up by the pit. Highlight of the night being Radke belting out his cover of Smash Mouth’s 'All Star.'

The Episode III Tour continues until May 24, where it ends in Los Angeles at The Wiltern.

As the night kicked off, openers Shvpes and Erra came prepared to give Chicago a show. A tour is only as good as its opening bands and with Shvpes and Erra rocking the House Of Blues right from the start, we knew it was going to be a solid night of Metal Music. As the opening bands finished setting the mood in Chicago for a headbanging night, We Came As Romans hit the stage and came out heavy from the start. At the House Of Blues in Chicago, you know a band is absolutely killing it when you feel the ground beneath you shaking and bouncing. It is honestly quite the experience to be a part of and that’s exactly how it was throughout their whole set along with Crown The Empires set. Although We Came As Romans gave Chicago an amazing set of Metal and Hard Rock Music, they also shared a lot of intimate moments with the crowd as well. With the passing of their vocalist Kyle Pavone, they took time out of their set to dedicate a moment to honor Kyle. It’s amazing how the band still honors their friend and allows the crowd to share some love that they always had and continue to have for Kyle. We Came As Romans continues to cherish their times with Kyle Pavone as they hang a banner right next to their drum setup as you could see in some of the pictures. If you want to support We Came As Romans and Kyle Pavone, there is a foundation that you can donate to. The link for that foundation can be found directly underneath this section.

​As We Came As Romans wrapped up their headbanging setlist, Crown The Empire took the stage and completely took over the House Of Blues. With the ground bouncing and shaking from start to finish, Crown The Empire controlled that crowd every second of that setlist. Vocalist Andy Leo is quite the site to see along with his band of rockstars as they give you everything that you would want in a metal show. They do a phenomenal job with mixing the new music with their chart-topping hits. Andy Leo also does a great job with interacting with the crowd and getting them tuned in every second of the set. Crown The Empire actually just released some new music not too long ago, which was rocked at the House Of Blues. Their new song ‘Sudden Sky’ via Rise Records can be viewed below if you haven’t had the opportunity to listen to it yet! Let us know what you think of it!

Lead vocalist Andy Leo shares some words about the new song “Sudden Sky”:

"Sudden Sky is a call to push back on the conformity forced upon us by the world and the realization that the only solution to the artificial white noise surrounding us is genuine human connection that can help us reach the full potential of what we’re all capable of."​

As the boys from Oklahoma, Hinder, hit the road on their Lucky 7 Tour, we were fortunate enough to catch them on their stop in Chicago at the venue Home Bar! For the first time, we were able to see first hand on why Hinder has been a huge name in the music industry for about eighteen years now and counting. Hinder is responsible for selling over four million albums and ten million singles, racking over one hundred and fifty million video views and counting, and passing the one hundred million streams mark. These numbers continue to grow as the years go on, due to their never ending touring and endless hits that they continue to produce. In addition, they use their experience to their advantage (Marshal Dutton (Vocals), Cody Hanson (Drums), Joe Garvey (Guitar, Backing Vocals), Mike Rodden (Bass) and Mark King(Guitar)) making the venue rock from start to finish, while getting the crowd in the mix of their set!

​The show at Home Bar was the perfect night for Rock N Roll as Hinder had supporting acts Ravens and the notorious SOIL! It was everything in a Rock show that you could ever want with these artists, due to the fact that they shared their new music while hitting the venue with their chart-topping hits such as “Get Stoned”, “Lips of an Angel” and much more! Before these bands took the stage though, we had the honor to go on Hinder’s tour bus and have some words with founding member and drummer Cody Hanson! Check out below to see how the interview went!

HeadRush Tv: You guys are on your LUCKY 7 TOUR now, how has it been? I’ve noticed a lot of sold out shows so far so how has it been!

Cody Hanson: Its been great and pretty unexpected if I am being honest with you. There has been a whole process with our team being hesitant to pair up with SOIL, since they are quit a bit heavier than us and in the past that has caused some problems for us due to the two crowds, but so far on this tour we have had zero issues and its been great. Like you said, we have had multiple shows sell out in advance, which is pretty rare these days, ya know? So, it’s been amazing and we couldn’t be happier!

HeadRush Tv: So as of January 25, Hinder released the new single HALO, would you guys mind getting into that for a bit? What does HALO truly mean to you guys and what was the inspiration behind the writing for this new single?​Cody Hanson: Absolutely, we kind of just were paying attention to everything like on the news and watching the way people interact online and just how awful people are to each other now a days and its truly just been weighing on us a lot and I think that’s been coming through the writing so we thought this song was important for us to write cause you know of all those keyboard warriors out there right now. Especially that and also I think everyone has had that hypocrite in their life that tried to be holier than now, but ya know they have their own skeletons in their closet as well, if you know what I mean. So ya know, we thought it was a very important subject to touch on.

​If you have not caught the chance to see Hinder live or if you just want to see them AGAIN, we suggest that you do so! These guys never fail to put on a fantastic show making it a night you will definitely not forget. Hinder will be on tour with Saving Abel, American Sin and The Adarna starting May 30 so get your tickets while you can! We guarantee tickets will be selling out fast so check out the dates above!

Recently, we had the opportunity to share the venue with the one and only A War Within at The Subterranean in Chicago, Illinois! If you have seen A War Within before you know that there is one way to describe this band and that is HEAVY. Band members Spencer Maybe (Vocalist), Roy Guldenpfennig (Drums), Dustin Jones (Guitar) and Maxx (Bass) dominate the stage as they take over any venue that is presented to them with their high energy and crowd interactive performances. One thing that A War Within does to perfection is give their fans that Metal opportunity to hear their new music mixed in with their previous headbanging hits. As fans it is a thrill to catch A War Within when they are in your city, due to the fact that they hit the smaller, more personal venues, which allows you to get the full experience of what this band has to offer. Last year they hit the road with Bless The Fall, The Word Alive, DED and Thousand Below which allowed them to showcase their talents to another level, giving them the experience to blow the roof off any headlining or supporting show that is in their future to come. Before they hit the stage at The Subterranean and hit Chicago with their Metal, we were able to share a few words with lead vocalist Spencer Maybe, check it out below!

HeadRush Tv: So Spencer, a few shows have been played so far and your back in Chicago. How have these run of shows been going so far?

Spencer Maybe: So far for 2019 we haven’t done a whole lot, but we’ve been focusing on more writing and recouping. We did a tour last year with Bless The Fall, The Word Alive, DED and Thousand Below and we were just in Chicago at The Bottom Lounge, which was awesome. Chicago is a different kind of monster cause of the curfews meaning we get on and off the stage at a decent time. Usually at home, we play super late, but Chicago gets a bit bar happy at some of the venues, so they get us all drunk and then get us out.

HeadRush Tv: A War Within recently released new music. How was that process and how has things been so far?

Spencer Maybe: Yeah, we just dropped our new album, but its kind of a weird situation. We have been dropping singles the entire time, so its like we released this entire album. We started in 2017, when we released “Where The Lines Are Drawn” and since then we have been dropping a single every other month and we’ve culminated the last few songs in this month (February) so basically we are just packaging it all together and we already have new singles coming out. Now we just need to start shooting videos and get rolling with the process. Music has changed since the 70’s and 80’s to where its not all about releasing the album and then wait a couple years. Now, its like send us that single and that single and that single, because there are so many bands out there and they are releasing music all the time. So, to stay relevant you just have to keep up and the more music that you release and the better music that you release, the more relevant you stay. It’s a mix between quantity and quality and being an independent band, we aren’t going to be able to compete with an August Burns Red who’s raking it in and has a label and infrastructure. A War Within is just a small band from Detroit, doing everything by ourselves and trying to push our own material. We already dropped this album and we are ready to move onto the next which we have done with releasing the new singles.

HeadRush Tv: What is your biggest goal as an artist in this industry?

Spencer Maybe: My dream is to play in Japan, but its bad because I hate planes and ya know we can’t just ride or walk to Japan. To get to the other side of the world, I need to overcome that fear of planes and I just can’t imagine sitting in a plane for that amount of time. So having some drinks and maybe a Xanax, “Don’t do drugs kids”, will help with that to zonk out, cause I can’t imagine doing that without those things.

HeadRush Tv: With the new music that you released and the new music that you are putting out. What are you guys trying to get across with that music and what is the inspiration behind that fuels you to keep producing the music?

Spencer Maybe: We have always been that band that has overcame adversity. With the last tour it was thirty dates back to back and we didn’t miss a single date even though we broke down twice on the road with our transportation, but name a band that hasn’t and if they say they haven’t I will tell you that they are full of shit. But we are doing something that is no different than the other bands out there and we stay true cause it is not for us. We are not in this band for us. I love to make music, but at the end of the day it is all about the fans and people like yourself that come out and hang out with us and get us more out there. Tonight we are just in someone’s basement in the city of Chicago. Our music just speaks volumes to people, and we aren’t trying to stand for something that we are not and we’re just trying to express ourselves just like everybody else. Everybody has thoughts and emotions deep inside, especially now a days, everyone is trying to bombard other people with shit. I just try to take everything that we have together as a whole and present it in the way that we love t do it. I think that’s why the number one complaint about our band is that we haven’t had a specific sound, but to us it’s like we don’t give a shit because we just care if the music sounds good. It’s not always about labeling, at the end of the day music is just music. It is just noise that has a certain connection to it whether that be emotional or melodic or beat wise. People just always try to connect and if that was the case with me my band would sound like a Hair Metal Band cause I love bands like Motley Crue, Poison and Whitesnake. I love listening to where the hair music came into play like Journey and REO Speedwagon.

HeadRush Tv: Would you say those bands are your influences and what got you into music in the first place? What are some things you would like to share with your fans?

Spencer Maybe: Oh yeah totally, I mean I feel like they definitely play a role, but I feel I get more influence from the people around me. From my personal experience, I see people who work a 9-5 job cause that’s what I do as well when I am not doing shows. I see people complain all the time and that clearly means you don’t love what you’re doing. Even if there was like a few people that came out, and we have had those shows before just like any other band, but we don’t do this cause of that specific part, but we enjoy the fact that we can travel and if there are two people or two hundred people, it doesn’t matter cause there is a connection to it. As complete strangers at a venue, we can share a moment that we will never again have and that’s all through a connection due to the music. Being in a band is tough with everything that goes into it and you have to have a love and passion for it and your follow and that’s why we are extremely personable people. As for some new stuff to tell our fans, we have a new sound coming out that is going to be a bit more mainstream and marketable. We are reaching more of the Rock roots and we will be putting out a bunch of demos. We are also doing an EP for this movie that we got asked to write music for and then we are working on our forth full-length album as we speak. Other than that, just expect more music and we hope to get signed so we can go on more tours.

As Spencer Maybe said in the interview, these guys are personal people that respect their fans and huge following. We suggest that you see A War Within any chance that you get, due to the fact that you will not be disappointed and given a solid night of live Metal music. If you want to connect with the band or reach out, they will definitely get back to you, we will be listing their socials below!